


One-Eye

by saer_huaC55



Series: The Black Swan [3]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: (Finally!), Blood and Injury, Gen, Hallucinations, Implied Claustrophobia, Injury, Kinda?, No Incest, POV Original Character, Sibling Bonding, Swearing, Twins, juuzou pov, not really - Freeform, only a bit, remember the shared twin injuries thing? yeah it's back, shinohara needs a break, shinohara pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26680240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saer_huaC55/pseuds/saer_huaC55
Summary: Alternate title: never trust strangers trying to sell you food. (aka, part two of terrible decisions made by my OC)
Relationships: Shinohara Yukinori & Suzuya Juuzou, Suzuya Juuzou & Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Black Swan [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1895041
Kudos: 5





	One-Eye

Kaori had no idea how she’d ended up here.

One moment, she was in front of an old man in a lab coat, the next she was unconscious.

Okay, so maybe she _shouldn’t_ have walked into the big old-looking mansion and trusted the first person she saw, but in her defence, she was starving. And she’d never been one to deny her hunger.

In all fairness, she could’ve stolen something from a store but she was nowhere near any at the time. Or, any that she was familiar with. Sometimes, the store owners of the shops she frequented at would give her free samples. 

She knew that half the time, she only won strangers over through her looks. Sure, her hair was messy and had grown far too long in the past two (or was it three?) years, and yes, her skin was covered in dirt, but her large red eyes and delicate features appealed to most. 

Although she highly doubted it was her features that got her here.

Where was here anyway? She really hadn’t meant to wander so far off, but her curiosity took hold of her as soon as she saw the silhouette of a building in the distance.

In any case, if this place was meant to keep her confined, it was way too easy to leave.

\---

The zoo was Juuzou’s favourite place to go.

It didn’t matter what day it was or what happened prior, if he was free, the zoo was always the place he went. 

It didn’t even have to be open. Even if it was closed, he’d still find a way in. Sure, he’d gotten in trouble a few times with Shinohara for breaking and entering, but what was the harm? 

It’s not like he endangered the animals in there or anything, although that was fun to imagine.

This zoo, in particular, was new to him. He had just arrived at the 20th ward with Shinohara and decided a quick trip to the zoo here was in order. The layout might’ve been different, but the place still felt familiar.

He hummed as he passed by displays and creatures stuck in cages. In one hand, he carried a sketchpad Shinohara had given him, in the other, a battered box of crayons. He was on his way to the giraffe exhibit (they had always been his favourite animal) when he heard two kids chattering away near the swan pen.

“Nii-san, look! They’re so graceful! Like pretty dancers! Do you think I’ll be like that someday?” 

Juuzou turned his head to the direction of the noise, but the kids were gone.

His step didn’t falter and his smile didn’t dip, but a twinge of sadness crossed his eyes.

\---

_“Hey nii-san, do you remember those swans at the zoo?”_

_Her brother turned towards her. Mama had just left, leaving them alone in their “room.”_

_(It was really a cell, but they didn’t know better at the time.”  
He frowned before grinning slightly. “You mean the big feathery white birds you wanted to be?”_

_She nodded. All her life, the only thing she’d ever wanted was to be as graceful as the birds she saw that day._

_“Do you think we’ll ever go to the zoo again?”_

_“Why would we? Mama gives us everything already.”_

_“There’s nothing you miss at all?”_

_He was silent for a moment before responding. “I wanna ride the giraffes one day. I’ll climb all the way up on top of their head and then-” he made a wild gesture with his cuffed hands “woosh! They’ll run off with me controlling them!”_

_She giggled to herself before he joined in with a laugh of his own._

_Neither of them really knew why they were laughing, but perhaps it was because of how absurd the idea of freedom was to them both._

\---

The candy tasted weird. 

To be fair, sour candy always tasted weird to her. Normally, she’d try to get the sweeter ones before resorting to this, but the nearest venue around the strange building only had sour candy so that was that. But while she disliked the taste, she’d never found it straight up _inedible._

She recoiled slightly as soon as the candy touched her tongue. Her first instinct was to recoil, which was odd because that was something she trained herself not to do. When you live in the open, it wasn’t exactly advisable to throw away food, even if you didn’t like the taste of it. 

But this? This tasted like ash. Or at least what she imagined ash to taste like.

Whatever. It tasted like shit. 

She spat it out, wiping the corner of her mouth. 

_Maybe it was spoiled,_ she thought to herself. Still though, she couldn’t shake the feeling something was off. 

She rummaged through her pockets for the second piece of candy. Originally, it was meant to be for later, but she supposed she could steal a protein bar from a convenience store nearby. 

Curiously, she checked the expiry date at the back of the wrapper. She had learned a long time ago that expiry dates were often inaccurate when it came to sweets, so even if it were months expired, it’d probably be fine to eat. Probably. She wasn’t sure if there were actually effects and she’d just never noticed them.

The candy wasn’t expired though, so it was definitely fine. 

It didn’t taste fine though; it tasted like ash.

\---

Something strange happened a few days after they arrived at the 20th Ward.

Of course, something was bound to happen. His partner was Juuzou after all, and something always happened when that kid was involved. But this incident was particularly strange. 

They were just walking through the streets, looking for a place to eat, when suddenly a brilliant red began to soak Juuzou’s clothes.

He was the one to notice this first, which would’ve been more concerning had it been anyone else, but Juuzou wasn’t exactly the most pain-sensitive person. Still, it might’ve caused less of a panic if Juuzou himself had noticed the blood seeping from his back and onto his shirt.

Shinohara didn’t have much clue what caused this. He had read through Juuzou’s report multiple times and he had never encountered any mention of spontaneous bleeding. It didn’t help that Juuzou himself seemed surprised, yet strangely nonchalant about it. Then again, that was his reaction to most things.

He had a few theories of course. He’d always felt like there had been something left out of the teen’s file, but the real questions were what and why? He doubted it was anything to do with him physically since hiding information like that would put them both at risk. Mentally, then? But that could place them in just as much danger. Besides, it was a physical wound. Perhaps Juuzou had gotten in a fight when his back was turned?

This was all too much. When all this was over, he definitely needed a good drink.

\---

At this point, Kaori was certain the problem had nothing to do with candy. 

Everything she had tried, from free cake samples to protein bars she’d stolen, all tasted like ash.

And sure, Kaori was used to unpleasant food, but at least she knew those were edible. One bite of anything now tasted _wrong._

And yet, she could still smell sweet, enticing delicacies right beneath her nose. She only knew one explanation for her dilemma, but it all seemed so strange. Too strange.

She didn’t want to face it; that she’d run away to avoid killing and ended up in a position where she _had_ to kill to survive. Here, there was no scapegoat or alternative.

(None that she knew of anyway.)

She never liked feeling trapped. The CCG promised she’d be free after she left Mama, but that made her feel trapped too. 

But this cage she was in now was one she’d willingly walked into, and this cage didn’t have a key.

\---

A peculiar scent drifted through the air.

Not that it smelled _bad._ Quite the opposite, really. It was enticing; a sweet aroma she had never smelled before.

And that was exactly the problem.

She’d always had an acute sense of smell; even more than her brother, who specialised more in knives and slicing things.

But now, it seemed heightened. What used to be vague scents drifting through the atmosphere became persistent smells bombarding and warning her at every angle. 

Still, she didn’t hesitate to follow the scent.

\---

There was a body on the floor. 

There was a body on the floor and _that’s_ what the scent was.

Well…

She really should’ve expected it. One of the first things she was taught about ghouls was their diet. Hell, it was the most defining feature of a ghoul. No shit the only thing they eat would have the most enticing scent.

The body itself didn’t bother her; she’d grown up seeing them scattered on the floor. The real problem was what to do with it.

Really, she could just leave it be and pretend nothing happened but she was so hungry and there was food right in front of her. Besides, there was no one here and this might be the only chance she’d get to eat. While having somewhat of a clear conscience at least.

Gingerly, she picked up one of the torn off chucks near the body. This had obviously been another ghoul’s victim. 

Without giving herself time to think, Kaori brought the piece of meat to her lips and began to eat.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if Kaori becoming a ghoul was cringey or obvious, but I kinda feel like it's necessary for her to grow? I mean, sure it would've been cool to have her as a neutral who does cool shit and is a familiar face to one of the characters (like Amon in :re) but I feel like that wouldn't make sense. Amon had a strong sense of justice, so being a vigilante was basically the only route for him once he became a ghoul. Kaori however, has somewhat of the same uncaring nature as Juuzou (except she does care but in a weird, complicated way.) I don't think she'd be one to join the ghoul vs human fight in any way if she had a way out of it, since she's very much the kind of person to run away from any sort of problem. Which isn't healthy at all, so I thought "why not force her into a problem she can't get out of?" and this was the option I came up with. 
> 
> In any case, if you've made it this far, thank you for reading! Feedback is very much welcome and appreciated, especially with character voices! I kinda struggled a bit with Juuzou's and Shinohara's, but I still had fun!
> 
> Drop a comment or kudos if you liked it? Maybe? I still feel weird asking for these...


End file.
